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Friday, December 4, 2009

Advent Calendar Dec 4th - Christmas Cards

As a child, I remember my mother and grandmother receiving Christmas cards from friends and family and oftentimes that was their only communication with those individuals during the whole year. Many of my mother's cards would include photos of their children and she would always include our school pictures in the cards she sent.

After I became an adult, I started sending my own cards. After we married, my list became our list and my husband's family and close friends were added. It varies every year but we have on average about 40 cards that we send every year. I do remember our first Christmas as a married couple, I made color copies of some wedding snapshots to send to those friends and family who could not attend. I don't remember if it was that year or a year or two later that I began writing an annual Christmas letter but it has now become a tradition.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I was recording our own family history each December. I have most of then saved as Word documents and some I even have extra copies on the Christmas-themed paper that I didn't trash after all the cards were mailed. I need to gather as many of those together into a scrapbook as possible. It would be a simple way to include our family stories with a couple of photos. Perhaps one day my own grandchildren and great-grandchildren can marvel at the way our lives were lived.